Tag Archives: other issues

We’re sorry, you’re not allowed to read this.

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Going Dark to Protest SOPA and PIPA

In the history book of bad ideas, the concept of giving corporations the right to censor the Internet has to rank among the worst ever.

But that’s what the impact of two bills recently introduced in the US Congress would be if they, or anything like them, were enacted into law, and it’s causing a righteous ruckus among free speech activists around the world.

In solidarity with major sites like Wikipedia, Boing Boing, and Reddit, Greenpeace USA’s website will be dark for 12 hours on the 18th of January to protest these two bills specifically, and the idea of empowering internet censorship in general.

>>TAKE ACTION: Tell your Congressional Representitives to Protect Online Freedom of Speech.

If you don’t know what SOPA and PIPA are, you should look them up. While touted as  efforts to curtail film and music piracy, they have the potential to allow corporations to censor online activism as well.

In a nutshell, these bills will enable corporations to effectively shut down websites that they believe are infringing their copyrights and trademarks. All they have to do is file notice (not prove to a court, but simply file notice) that their copyright has been infringed to a service provider, such as the one which registers the name greenpeace.org on the Internet, and that entity has 5 days to take action to end service to the site.

If in fact there was no copyright infringement, the service provider is immune from lawsuit by Greenpeace for taking the site down or suspending any other services.

In effect, the law says that copyright infringement is so great a crime that corporations can play judge and jury, presume guilt, and possibly infringe civil rights, free speech, and privacy in the defense of their interests.

They can demand that search engines and social networking sites block access to the targeted site, and that payment services and advertisers cease doing business with the accused site. A previous provision, that internet service providers block access to the site through the domain name system, has for now been removed: a good thing, perhaps, but not if it means a better chance for the rest of the bill’s draconian measures going through.

So what’s this got to do with online activism?

Well, it so happens that trademark infringement is part of the bill as well — and that is an open invitation to corporate abuse of SOPA/PIPA to silence critics.

At Greenpeace, we’ve managed to put some judo moves on some mighty corporations by leveraging their own advertising budgets against them. Whether it’s spoofing VW’s most expensive superbowl ad of all time, spreading the word about a spoof of the American Petroleum Institute’s support for the Keystone XL tarsands pipeline, creating a Kit-Kat ad that illustrates the rainforest destruction inherent in palm-oil production, or putting up a look-alike Apple.com website to push for better e-waste policies, we’ve rigorously exercised our right to free speech in freely speaking out against corporate abuse of the environment, and won many a campaign victory doing so.

We use corporations’ own language, their own marketing, their own strength against them — which is sometimes the only way that an entirely supporter-funded operation like ours can afford to put a spotlight on the negative side of their operations.

Thing is, while court case after court case has agreed with us that parody is a protected form of free speech, the corporations at the pointy end of our parodies tend to disagree. Exxon/Esso took us to court in France over alleged copyright infringement of their logo when we launched a campaign against them:
Esso said we were in violation of their intellectual property rights. We said it was free speech. The court agreed with us, and in an historic decision, we won. But had that decision been left to Exxon/Esso, we would have been shut down.

Nestle’s Kit Kat brand famously failed when they attempted to have our spoof video featuring their brand — and critical of their support for rainforest destruction — removed from YouTube for trademark violation. Hundreds of our supporters reposted the video on other sites and their own Facebook profiles.

Eventually, YouTube’s lawyers intervened and the video was restored. Under SOPA, YouTube *itself* could have been shut down for hosting our Kit Kat video. Facebook could have gone dark for hosting supporter samizdat. Greenpeace.org would have gone dark worldwide. And Kit Kat owner Nestle never would have been compelled by our supporters and their customers to revise their policy on palm oil procurement, a move which has struck a major blow to an industry which is mowing down orang-utan habitat in Indonesia to plant palm trees.

Which is why you need to oppose SOPA/PIPA. While the Obama administration has indicated they would veto any bill with some of the more draconian measures that have been considered, and SOPA itself has been “shelved indefinitely” we need to send a message, loud and clear, about how far we’ll go to stop corporate censorship.

If you are a US citizen, write your representative. If you live outside the US, sign this petition. If you want to do more, check out these suggestions from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

More than ever, the networked world is holding corporate interests accountable for their environmental and human rights abuses. Don’t let people power be silenced. Stop corporate censorship of the Internet.

Mock commercial undermines new Vote 4 Energy oil advertisement

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Crossposted from PolluterWatch

Today, the American Petroleum Institute unveiled its 2012 Vote 4 Energy astroturf campaign, centered around a major election-linked CNN advertising package that PolluterWatch helped expose last month with audio recordings from inside the studio. Vote 4 Energy attempts to show ‘real Americans’ who are ‘energy voters,’ meaning they are committing to vote for whichever politicians support Big Oil’s dirty agenda in this election year. Typical. API also bought the back page of the A section of the Washington Post with a Vote 4 Energy ad, space that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to normal people.

Anticipating this new misinformation campaign, PolluterWatch created a mock commercial to show how API and it’s oil company members (Exxon, BP, Shell, Chevron and all the usual suspects) have to fake citizen support for the oil industry:

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is Big Oil’s top lobbying firm, using a $200 million budget to push dirty energy incentives and tax handouts for oil companies into our national laws. They have been caught in the past staging rallies for their Energy Citizens astroturf campaign, as revealed by Greenpeace in a confidential API memo to oil executives. Why do they fake citizen support? Probably because Americans overwhelmingly support clean energy over dirty oil development.

Astro-Turf

Knowing that API is rolling out the astroturf on cable TV, we decided to roll out actual astroturf at the location of their press conference today, literally making attendees walk down a long astroturf ‘green carpet’ shrouded by Big Oil logos as they entered the event. The K St lobbyists seemed downright confused by seeing the corporate logos that are normally invisible at API events.

Inside, API CEO Jack Gerard announced the campaign and promoted dirty energy development like the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in his “State of American Energy” address. Apparently Jack thinks he’s the President of United States of Energy, I thought he was just an oil lobbyist. Reporters leaving the session spoke about how bogus the event was–same old same old from Jack.

Jack Gerard may want to trick Americans into his Vote 4 Energy nonsense, but he demonstrates the same predictable rhetoric that oil companies always use to make themselves sound somewhat responsible, when everyone knows they aren’t–see our profiles for ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips, all multi-billion dollar corporations, making record profits even in a global recession, and looking for more tax breaks and handouts. If you are watching election coverage on CNN and spot API’s astroturf ad, don’t buy the lie. Vote for yourself, not oil executives.

2011: Thanks for an Amazing Year of Victories for the Planet

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With the nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima and the rising challenge of climate change, 2011 might seem like a dark year for the environment. Yet this year also gave me a lot of hope. The growing power of grassroots activists has achieved some stunning victories and we are taking the planet back.

In rough chronological order, here are just a few things the YOU have achieved this year:

Thanks for a wonderful 2011. See you in 2012.

Big Coal and Oil Play Dirty but EPA Mercury Ruling Proves We’d Rather Keep It Clean

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Starting today, we can begin to breathe, eat, and drink a bit easier. The EPA begins enforcement of the Mercury and Air Toxics standard, a 20-year-old mandate that set limits on mercury emissions from coal and oil-fired power plants.

These safeguards are not for show. They reflect a raft of highly credible research proving that mercury, along with other toxic metals including arsenic, chromium and nickel, is spewed in to the air as an insidious byproduct of fossil fuel burning. These metals contaminate waterways, where they infuse the bodies of commercial fish and seafood. It’s no surprise that women of childbearing age are urged not to eat salmon and shrimp. High accumulated mercury levels in these and other frequently consumed species can be devastating to the unborn and infants.

That reality gave this effort tremendous momentum — a record-breaking 500,000 Americans reached out to the EPA in support of the standard, reinforcing the notion that we’d rather have healthy moms and babies than antiquated power plants raining contaminants down on our communities. We salute President Obama and EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson for standing fast against the antiquated interests of Big Coal and Big Oil in order to make this ruling a reality.

Unsurprising, however, has been the utility industry’s prolonged, expensive campaign of misinformation — millions of dollars and countless lobbying hours spent trying to convince legislators, and thus the American public, that a little mercury mutating a developing human nervous system was no big deal.

Some utility companies, along with members of Congress swimming in their campaign contributions, made heel-dragging on this issue an art. Their lobbyists are understandably upset, but we’re happy to treat them to a seafood dinner if that assuages their grief.

The barrage of tiresome talking points from Republican and industry opposition about how this epitomizes big government’s job-killing intrusion on free enterprise is already underway, but let’s be as clear as the forthcoming air:

  • This rule will save lives. According to EPA, the rule will prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks, and 130,000 asthma attacks each year, as well as almost 3,000 cases of chronic bronchitis yearly. Emergency room visits will drop by almost 6,000!
  • This rule will protect the environment. In 2008, nearly half of all U.S. river-miles and lake-acres were under water contamination advisories. The vast majority of this contamination was due to mercury, including 100% of the Great Lakes. Over time, just one gram of mercury per year will contaminate a 20-acre lake.
  • This rule will create jobs and boost productivity. EPA estimates that this rule will lead to 46,000 short-term construction jobs and 8,000 long-term utility jobs. Currently only 17 states have established mercury emissions limits on coal plants. That’s far from adequate, especially since the states with the largest volume of mercury emissions do not have emissions limits. In addition, we’ll avoid 540,000 sick days each year, enhancing productivity while lowering health care costs.

The downside for fossil fuel facilities is negligible at best. A mere eight percent of our nation’s coal-generation capability will be taken offline in the years ahead — decrepit, 30-to-50-year-old power plants that even utility companies agree need to be modernized or shut down outright as they have become too costly to upgrade or maintain, let alone operate.

So, let’s take a well-deserved deep breath and celebrate the fact that regard for a nation’s health and well-being has won out over the interests of a few backward-thinking bribe recipients who don’t lose sleep over causing cancer and birth defects.

The Story of Broke: New Video and Interview with Annie Leonard

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Are you sick and tired of corporate polluters not only destroying the environment but actively blocking the creation of a green economy for the 21st century?

So is Annie Leonard, the film maker who has inspired millions with the “The Story of Stuff,” an incredible film about how our “throw away economy” is trashing the planet. Her new film, “The Story of Broke: Why There’s Still Plenty of Money to Build a Better Future,” challenges the illusion that we don’t have the resources to build a sustainable society; instead of giving tax breaks and subsidies to oil companies with massive profits, we could be creating green jobs for all.

While the film is a must see, I am also super excited to present it to you because Annie worked for Greenpeace for almost ten years! And even though she is incredibly busy with the launch of “Story of Broke,” she was able to answer a few interview questions over email. Thanks Annie!

You used to work for Greenpeace. Could you tell us about your history with the organization?

Annie: I learned much of what I discussed in The Story of Stuff while working for Greenpeace. I worked with Greenpeace International for almost a decade, based first in Washington, DC, and then in South Asia. I was part of the Toxic Trade team; we were fighting against the exports of toxic waste from the world’s richest countries to less industrialized countries. We wanted to stop waste exports both because dumping waste overseas threatened public health and the environment in the importing country, but also because it undermined efforts to prevent pollution at source. We wanted to solve our waste problem, not export it.

At that time, the U.S., Europe and Australia were exporting all kinds of waste to the developing world. A team of us at Greenpeace ran a multiyear campaign to get a global ban on international waste trafficking. We did achieve that agreement, called The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. While most waste trafficking ended, unfortunately some continues. And there is still one industrialized country which hasn’t ratified the Basel Convention: the U.S.

Working with Greenpeace, especially collaborating with allies in other countries, taught me that environmental issues can’t be separated from social and economic issues. To really solve waste, or any other environmental problem, we need to make some pretty fundamental changes to our throw-away economy.

What have you been up to since working for Greenpeace?

Annie: While working for Greenpeace, I visited dozens of factories where our stuff is made and dumps where it is dumped all over the world. I got to see firsthand the often hidden environmental, social and health impacts of the way we make, use and throw away stuff. When I left Greenpeace and came back to the U.S. , I was frustrated by how the real impacts of our stuff was hidden from our view. We are bombarded all day with messages encouraging us to buy more and more, without honestly showing where all our stuff comes from and where it goes after we’re done with it.

I wanted to figure out an engaging and accessible way to invite people into conversation about this. So, in 2007, I joined with Free Range Studios to make a 20 minute cartoon, The Story of Stuff, which is available to watch and download for free at www.storyofstuff.org. I had hoped that 50,000 people would watch it. To my amazement, over 50,000 saw it the first day! Today, over 12 million people have watched it all over the world, it has been translated into many languages and has inspired more movies, a book and study guides for schools and faith based communities. I am very happy to have been able to help spark a much needed conversation about how we make, use and throw away stuff –and how we can do it better. We’ve gone on to make other films examining the wastefulness of bottled water, toxics in personal care products, the disposability of today’s electronics and other issues, all available to watch at storyofstuff.org

Can you tell us a little bit about your newest movie and why you chose to make it?

Annie: Our latest film, The Story of Broke, is a response to the bogus forced austerity programs that the US and many other governments are forcing on our communities. We are being told that we can’t afford clean energy, and that environmental protection is too expensive because we’re broke. But we’re not broke! There is plenty of money to start building a better future, but that money is being hijacked.

At the same time that governments are telling us that we’re too broke to invest in environmental and public health, they are handing out all kinds of subsidies, from tax breaks to infrastructure and direct payments, to big corporations which are part of the dinosaur economy: oil and gas, big coal, nuclear reactions, garbage incineration, giant chemical companies and more.  It’s going to be very hard to transition our economy to be clean and green and healthy – as Greenpeace is working for all over the world – as long as governments are using public money to prop up the obsolete businesses of yesterday. Instead, let’s use our shared public money to build a better future for everyone. For more, please see storyofbroke.org.

Protecting the Arctic Refuge for Real: It’s Time to End these Unbearable Conditions

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You’d think the living would be a bit easier in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but times are tough. 

The most familar inhabitants, polar bears, are already contending with shrinking habitat thanks to global warming. Now the Obama administration is going to give Shell Oil permission to drill just off the coast. Talk about adding environmental insult to injury.

Let’s give those bears a break, and reinforce the reality that any harm inflicted upon the Arctic will inevitibly come back to hurt us.

Join us in urging the US Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling.

We’re less than 8,000 signatures away from our goal of 35,000. Share your voice, spread the word, and help us keep oil drilling away from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Valparaiso University Fights the Keystone XL Pipeline

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The youth climate movement stands on the frontlines of the battle for the future against a relentless nemesis: corporate greed. Greed serves as the foundation upon which America’s dirty energy infrastructure has been built.  Dirty energy, especially oil, has literally driven our planet to its breaking point and the recent proposal to construct the Keystone XL Pipeline will ensure our progression as a broken civilization that will end in shambles. Fortunately, young people across the nation are rejecting this future and rising up to say: “No more.”

I am proud to say that I am a part of this movement. Corporate greed and the Keystone XL pipeline have no place in my future and I will fight for climate justice.  I have brought the Keystone XL pipeline fight to my campus at Valparaiso University in Indiana. I am President of a small independent environmental group called “The Movement.”  Motivated with a thirst for change, we went around campus to educate students about the pipeline and to collect signatures and photo petitions to gain support and grow our movement.

We encountered everyone from the skeptic to the sympathetic to the supporter. We journeyed to non-existent Obama for America offices and were the recipients of a redundant and cynical questionnaire: Wouldn’t this create more jobs? Shouldn’t this decrease our dependency on foreign oil? Aren’t the tar sands better than conventional oil?

We faced each challenge with determination and did our best to overcome each hurdle. The fight resulted in nearly 200 signatures against the Pipeline. Since no Obama campaign office has been opened in Indiana at this time, we prepared a packet to send to the OFA headquarters in Chicago, due to arrive just before thousands will circle the White House in Washington DC on November 6th.

Building the Keystone XL Pipeline will escalate the effects of climate change and prioritize pollution in America. My generation must not stand for this. We need to demand that President Obama keep his promise to “end the tyranny of oil” and demonstrate real climate leadership by ushering our nation into an era where our energy is clean and our lifestyle is green. This starts with President Obama rejecting the Keystone XL! I cant make the trip, but I strongly encourage you to go to Washington DC on November 6th to circle the White House and tell President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline!

- Olivia Stemwell is a Campus Coordinator at Valparaiso University

Another Forest Win “Transforms” An Industry

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Victory

When Greenpeace released a carefully researched exposé How APP is Toying With Extinction in June, we exposed the ties between leading toy makers and rainforest destruction in Indonesia. Realizing parents don’t want to buy toys wrapped in rainforest destruction, toy companies have responded. Lego took action in July.

Last month, Barbie-maker Mattel did too. Now today, toy-giant Hasbro, makers of Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, Monopoly and many other games and toys, has announced a new global policy for the paper it uses.

The new Hasbro policy means it will avoid buying paper for things like toy packaging and board games that comes from endangered forest destruction. That includes notorious forest-destroyer Asia Pulp & Paper (APP). Over time, Hasbro will also be increasing the recycled paper and Forest Stewardship Council certified sustainable fiber in its packaging.

With this latest toy-giant taking action , I think you could say we have “transformed” an industry. But, that’s not the end of the story. Ultimately, this is not about toy robots and ponies—it’s about making a difference for forests and the people and wildlife that depend on them. And that means making sure companies like APP get a clear message that deforestation is bad for business. In a market economy, supply and demand drives innovation and change. Companies give customers what they want—or risk their bottom lines.

We have seen many companies try to avoid green innovation pretending that they can ignore, make fun of, or somehow fight what they hope is simply a fad. But, thanks to people like you, we’ve been able to demonstrate, overwhelmingly, that support for rainforest protection is not a passing fashion. It’s here to stay. It’s growing. CEOs that don’t get that—or, who refuse to innovate out of stubborness—will watch their companies fall behind. You don’t have to take my word for it:

 

So, let’s take a minute to celebrate this latest good news.

And, if you want to be part of the next good news story, take another moment to tell leading retailers not to wipe away rainforests with throw-away tissue products!

Occupy the world

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At the weekend my twitter feed was alive with news of the hundreds of thousands of people around the world, including in my adopted city of Amsterdam, taking a stand in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

It is a movement that has quickly spread far beyond the shadows of Wall Street’s skyscrapers, and the reason is simple – all over the world, citizens are tired of profit being put before people and the planet.

Greenpeace is tired of polluting corporations with vested interests dictating policy to governments, without concern for the consequences for those who have to live with them. We are tired of corporations controlling the quality of the air, people’s access to food and the availability of clean, safe energy. As an organisation and as individuals, we share the growing demands for change.

The Occupy movement is in its infancy, but the discontent that gave birth to it is long-lived and broad-ranging.

Since I became the Executive Director of Greenpeace, I have seen first-hand how corporations are given licence to pollute and control our environment.

The horrors of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown brought into sharp focus the cosy relationship between the nuclear industry and governments, as well as the liability caps the nuclear industry enjoys. The people of Japan, already scarred by the consequences of radiation contamination, are now paying the cost of the clean-up too.

In Indonesia, the Amazon and Congo, commercial interests are driving deforestation; at sea large-scale industrial fishing fleets are emptying our oceans at a terrifying rate; agri-business is tightening its stranglehold on people’s access to the basics of life, threatening food security. The giant chemical companies are polluting our rivers and even our childrens’ clothes and toys.

There is one other common denominator in this equation – almost always it is the poor that pay the price first.

We share the aspirations of Occupy Wall Street for a better, freer world. We share their non-violent stance on civil disobedience. We are proud to have sent our solar truck “Rolling Sunlight” to help power the OWS media centre in New York and we urge everyone who has not yet engaged to do so now.

In just a few weeks we will see governments and corporations gather in my home town of Durban to yet again debate what Greenpeace believes is the most urgent issue facing our people and planet – climate change. But the time for debate is long passed. Now is the time for action. Action on the scale of that which we saw this weekend across hundreds of cities in the world – from Sydney to New Delhi to Rio de Janeiro to New York.

We know that there is broad-based democratic support for a rapid transition to renewable energy, but fossil-fuel companies are corrupting climate politics worldwide. In the US, the Koch Brothers – oil billionaires of ‘the 1%’ – are actively funding climate change denial and – along with many other fossil-fuel corporations and their front-groups – are holding us back from the political change that we so desperately need.

Greenpeace is no stranger to peaceful occupations – some may say that we have even made a habit out of it! So it should come as no surprise that we share the ideals of the Occupy movement. This is just the beginning of a mass movement for change and we stand shoulder to shoulder with them in their peaceful endeavour.

Like all movements, it will take time for the ideals to crystallise into concrete demands for change that everyone can agree on, but we encourage them to stand firm and continue on their path. The peaceful, non-violent public dialogue we are seeing at the occupy events worldwide is a vital part of a healthy democracy.

Last week I was interviewed for the Huffington Post Game-Changer series and asked about the importance of civil disobedience. In my many years of working to end poverty, against apartheid and now in the environment movement, I know that civil disobedience and peaceful protest on a massive scale is the only way to bring about real change and real democracy. Greenpeace is determined to play its part in ensuring that our governments and corporations deliver what the people want – a peaceful, equitable, green planet.

– Kumi Naidoo